


Island of Corruption

by Vanta22exual



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen, This fandom has had it too good for too long, its sad, like really really sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-02
Updated: 2015-08-02
Packaged: 2018-04-12 16:16:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4486320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vanta22exual/pseuds/Vanta22exual
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While Steven was poofed the Gems went on a mission. It has been a whole week no without any kind of communication and Steven gets worried. He and Connie go investigate, and they don't like what they find.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Island of Corruption

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was inspired by this lovely photoset: http://maria-ruta.tumblr.com/post/102274123937/i-made-an-au-guys-you-wont-like-this

"A week. A whole week Connie! They should have at least sent some kind of signal by now, if not wraped back to the temple." Steven scowled, pacing the house. It had been a week since the crystal gems went off to investigate an anomaly that occured on a secured island. Corrupted gems seemed to be drawn to it naturally, so they had to investigate the grounds every few weeks to clear out and poof those that collected there to prevent them from becoming too big of a threat for the surrounding islands.

"Steven, calm down. I'm sure they're fine. I bet they are just busy fighting a few too many monsters to come in contact with you right now." Despite Connie's attemts to reassure him, Steven stayed nervous. He sat down, twiddling with his thumbs before lifting up his shirt, looking at the gem that rested where his belly button should have been. "But they need me. Mom's shield and my healing spit. What if one of their gems gets cracked? What is Garent suddenly unfuses? They could be in danger, they could-" 

Before he could keep counting off reasons, Connie put her hand on his, making him quiet down, although the worried frown on his face never quite left. "Look Steven, if its that important to you, we can go and check, but you have to take it slow, you just recovered." Steven simply looked down, he only didn't go on that mission because he had been poofed prior to all of this, on that same island as well. It was part of where his worries came from. He sighed, squeezing Connie's hand lightly before nodding. "Lets go."

Stepping onto the warppad, they were on the island only moments later. Stepping off, Steven looked around, trying to listen for any sounds of fighting, be it the Gems against some kind of monster, or even just Pearl and Amethyst bickering. But everything seemed to be silent. An unknown shiver travled up Steven's spine. "Its too quiet. Its like there's nothing here." Connie seemed to brush it off. "Maybe we're just not close enough? Come on, let's go and see, but be careful."

They trekked through the thick jungle that stretched over most of the island, the destruction of past battles still visible here and there. Craters in the floor that had filled with rain water to form small ponds, fallen trees that now served as the homes and breeding grounds to other animals and plans among other things. But no matter how far they actually wandered into the thicket, the silence persisted. Steven frowned, something in the back of his head telling him that he wouldn't like whatever he found, but he ignored the feeling. 'They're fine' he told himself. Amethyst was scrappy, she got injured and even poofed often, but she never actually managed to crack her gem after that one time. Pearl was persicse, careful and structured, it would take a lot for her to even get hit. And Garnet, well she was Garnet. Steven doubted that she would let herself be careless enough to result in her poofing.

And yet, there were no sounds. No signs of a fight, nothing. Where were they? The gems would have surely let him or Connie know if they moved locations, even while chasing something. They still had to be here, right? 

"Steven. Did you hear that?" Connie suddenly perked up, eyes wide and looking off to a clearing in the distance. Steven just frowned, straining his ears. She was right, there was a sound. It almost sounded like....snoring? He blinked. Maybe they had set up a camp? But then again, gems didn't need to sleep, or eat, drink or breathe for that matter. Why was there snoring out in the middle of the jungle? Looking at Connie, he nodded to her, signaling that they would go and check it out. They crept closer, unsure of what was actually in that clearing. Soon however, they were close enough, and just as predicted, Steven didn't like what he was seeing.

To put it bluntly, it was a sleeping monster. Gem monster, Steven noted. But what he didn't like about it was its general appearance, as well as its color. It looked like some odd primate lion hybrid, completely covered in lavender colored fur aside from its snout. Three pairs of closed eyes were resting at the upper end of it, and the snoring sounded from a pair of nostrils at the end of a long snout. Said snout was parted slightly, showing off a row of extremely sharp teeth, as well as a tongue that seemed to have spikes on it, although it was hard to tell from the distance. 

What struck Steven the most however, was when the beast rolled onto its side. There, on his chest, was a gem Steven was only all to familiar with. "Amethyst..." He didn't believe it. She couldn't be- No. He wouldn't even think about it. Amethyst got poofed a lot, but she would know better then to regenerate so quickly so often. This COULDN'T be her. And yet, there were no other creatures around, neither human, gem, or corrputed gem. Lost in thought, he leaned forward a bit too much, soon tumbling out into the clearing while Connie let out a quiet shout in surprise.

That certainly woke Amethyst. Or perhaps she hadn't been sleeping after all, and simply pretending like she always did. Nonetheless, the corrupted gem got onto its feet, snarling. The drool that ran down its snout seemed to be acidic in nature, and highly so as it quickly burned into the grassy ground when it hit. The eyes opened to reveal six purple orbs starring right down at Steven, who was only now getting onto his feet, starring up at the Corrupt gem, wide eyed. 

"Ame-" Before he could even finish the name, a tongue that looked surprisingly similar to a certain gem's whip lashed out at him, knocking him back with a lot of force. He grunted in pain, a cut on his forearm slowly starting to bleed as he quickly got onto his feet again. Connie was by his side within a second, Rose's sword drawn and ready to strike back against the creature.

"Connie no! Its Amethyst! We can't hurt her!" Steven tried to explain as he got onto his feet, the creature that was once Amethyst slowly creeping closer, snarling agian. "Steven are you insane? She is going to kill us if we don't defend ourselves!" With a leap, Amethyst attacked them again, Connie ready to strike back before the snarling attacker just bounced off a very familiar pink shield. "We can't! /I/ can't!" Steven frowned, taking Connie's hand and quickly dragging her off to the forest, trying to loose the beast that was now chasing after them. The shock of what happened had to settle in still.

Connie didn't answer to that, knowing how Steven must have felt about this. Once they had a bit of distance between them and Amethyst, she motioned to him to climb up one of the thicker trees that were surrounding them. Steven nodded, and within moments they were perched on a high up branch, hidden by the leaves and watching as the beast that once was Amethyst ran by, trying to find them. There was a quiet sigh of relief by both of them before they tensed. 

A branch had just snapped overhead.

Looking up, Steven just about avoided a loud scream escaping his lungs. Just a few branches above them, there was a large nest that seemed to be very neatly made. And over the edge of that nest peeked an oddly familiar face. Mind you it was not much of a face at all, more of a long beak that ran up to end in a spike of hair. The avian creature seemed to possess no facial features aside from a VERY familiar gem stuck on its forehead. "Pearl...." the soft whisper came from Connie, who was instantly checking for a quick way down from the tree that wouldn't involve having to jump and rely on Steven to catch her. 

Steven had seemingly stopped all thought processes, trying to comprehend what he was seeing. Pearl, the neat gem that always taught him to be careful, turned into a monster somehow. As Connie scanned for a branch they could quickly jump to, Pearl got out of her nest, hopping to a lower branch that was closer to them. She was a very thin bird, like a crane almost, most of her feathers a bright teal aside from a few patches of peach near her long tail feathers and the patch of feathers on her head that mimicked her usual hairstyle.

The creature tilted its head at Steven, who was in shock, eyes wide, fingers shaking as he tried to find something to hold onto on the thin branch. He must be having a bad dream. A very, VERY bad dream. This couldn't be happening. Pearl couldn't have turned into a corrupted gem, she just couldn't. While he was busy breaking down on the inside, Connie finally spotted a branch not far from theirs, but sadly, it was too late. When she moved to try and reach it, the wood underneath them creaked as the branch gave in. They were hurdling towards the ground, Connie screaming and Steven wide eyed.

With a swift movement Pearl spread her wings, diving after them before catching both of them in her beak by the hem of their clothes. "Pearl...?" Steven looked up, trying to get a look at the avian that she had turned into, only to see her flap her wings quickly, carrying them towards what seemed to be a large inactive volcano in the center of the island. Connie struggled for a moment, trying to get down until she actually took a look. After seeing just how high up they were, she instantly stopped, frowning with fear written in her eyes. "Where is she taking us? What does she want?" 

Steven had no answer for those questions either, just shaking his head, looking as Pearl soared closer to the crater flying lower and lower until she suddenly dropped them both into it, perching on the caldera and peering down to where she had dropped the two. The fall luckily wasn't very far, though Steven took a moment to actually get onto his feet, looking over at Connie to see if she was alright. Connie however, was looking somewhere entirely else. "Steven...."

He followed her gaze, freezing when he saw what she saw. 

It looked like some kind of giant golem, thick armor seeming to protect its upper half as well as its legs. Its middle was completely free, only a thin stalk connecting the two large portions of its body. But what struck Steven the most were its hands. They were hidden in giant gauntlets- Gauntles he was only all too familiar with, catching the sight of two fuchsia colored gems sparkling within them. Looking up, he just managed to catch three bright yellow eyes opening and peering down at them as Pearl fluttered down from above, landing a few feet away from the golem. 

"G-Garnet? No. Not you too...." Steven sounded close to tears, actually, he was already in tears, a fine line of the salty liquid running down his cheeks as he looked up at what remained of his beloved guardians. Moments later there was a lound scraping sound, silence, and seconds later what remained of Amethyst burst through a wall into the crater, leaving a large hole in its wake. Snarling as it jumped down to join the other two corrputed gems settling inbetween them.

Steven shook his head, taking a step back. This couldn't be. This had to be another one of his bad nightmares. Garnet Amethyst and Pearl would never be so reckless to let themselves be corrupted like this. They just wouldn't. Maybe those were other gems? But Steven doubted that he just so happened to run into three corrputed versions of other gems just when he was searching for his friends. No, these three had to be them. He took another step back, shaking his head. But if they really were corrupt then....then he would be all alone.

Connie was only alerted to Steven's dissappearance by a loud 'POOF' when he suddenly retreated into his gem. Sometimes emotional trauma can be severe enough to have the same effect as if a gem's body were sufficiently damanged. Her eyes widened as she looked from the gem on the ground up at the beasts before acting on the adrenaline rush she got. With a few quick movements, she grabbed Steven's gem and ran towards the hole. There were two loud roars as well as loud trilling behind her as the three corrupted gems gave chase. 

She ran between the trees, not able to loose them. Worse even, Amethyst was quickly gaining ground. While Pearl couldn't swoop down on Connie with all the trees in the way, and Garnet had to knock them down with her massive body, Amethyst had none of these problems, easily running between them and chasing Connie.

Luckily enough, the warp pad was just up ahead, although Connie could already hear Amethyst's claws digging into the ground right behind her. Digging around in her backpack, she fished out the little remote type of thing that Pearl had made for her once. It allowed her to use warp pads by herself despite not being a gem, so she could escape a dangerous situation such as this, even if Steven were to be poofed.

She just barely made it onto the pad, quickly warping away before Amethyst pounced, only to land on the now empty pad. After arriving, Garnet didn't hesitate to smash it before making the trek back to the volcano to rest. 

Once Connie finally arrived at the temple again, she fell down, panting heavily from all that had just happened. Steven's gem was still in her arms, and she looked down at it with a frown. She also couldn't believe that these three would have let such a thing happen to them. Whatever DID happen on that island must have been a rough fight for them to regenerate so quickly. 

Sighing, Connie slowly got onto her feet after a while, setting Steven's gem down on the bunched up towel to prepare him for his regeneration, hoping he would come back soon so they could make a plan on how to save them. Sadly she would never get to it though.

Steven never regenerated.


End file.
